


The Seven Birds of Vox Machina

by RiBread



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Temporary Character Death, it's the stolen century so almost everyone dies or is referenced as dying at some point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:21:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21690853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiBread/pseuds/RiBread
Summary: “I saw all of existence, all at once. I saw a dark storm, a living hunger eating it from within. But I saw a brilliant light heralded by seven birds, flying tirelessly from the storm. I saw seven birds.The twinsThe inventorThe muscleThe traveling healerThe peacekeeperAnd the eloquent one.”
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	The Seven Birds of Vox Machina

The first time someone dies, of course it’s Grog. The first cycle, before they even know what’s happening. He stays back, in a rage, and even Pike is unable to drag him away from the shadows he’s relentlessly smashing. It’s Scanlan who finally pulls her onto the ship, the tiny cleric fighting him the whole way. Percy waits at the helm as long as he possibly can, everyone waiting desperately for their friend to board the ship, grinning and covered in the shadows’ black goo. But he never comes. Pike screams when Percy finally pulls the ship away, at the last second, his face set like stone as the world is consumed by darkness.

And then there’s light.

It forms into Percy, still standing at the helm where he was when they took off from Emon the first day of this mission. Vex and Vax, by the railing, holding hands. Keyleth, hands clasped over her face just the way they had been when she was watching their home planet get destroyed. Scanlan, off to one side, head averted from the horrible scene. And pike, no longer on the floor, but standing, her hand gripped tightly onto grog’s huge fingers. As the light coalesces and stills into their forms, grog glances around. His right eye is blackened with bruises- just like it was from that bar fight the night before they left.

“Woah, what’d I miss? Those shadowy fellas were, uh, a bit tougher than I expected.”

The room stares in silent shock, then relaxes in a collective sigh of relief as Pike embraces her friend.

“Don’t you EVER do that again, Grog!”

He does, of course.

~~~

They all learn quickly that cycles when the twins are separated are the worst.

It’s not even because of death, the first time. It’s cycle 18, and the only deaths they’d had was Grog’s, and one where Pike was killed right at the end of cycle 17. It hit them hard, but she was back within days, and that time they actually found the light. Despite everything, a small victory.

Then, they land in Vasselheim.

Here, it seems like everything they do is illegal. To even begin looking for the light, they must bargain with this world’s adventuring guild, the slayer’s take. However, one group of seven strangers doesn’t fly in this place. They are split, for the first time since they became a team. In one direction go Scanlan, Percy, Vex’ahlia, and Grog. In the other, Vax’ildan, Keyleth, and Pike. Each group will also be joined by others, chosen by the slayer’s take.

Vax fights it immediately, of course.

“I’m not going anywhere without my sister!”

Keyleth lays a hand on his arm, but he shrugs it off, reaching for Vex. They all know what he’s thinking. Of course they know by now she will come back, but a year without her? Whether by death or by space, the twins have never been apart that long. And if she does die, he will blame himself, for not being there to save her that pain. She feels it too, it’s clear, but she bites her lip and shakes her head at him anyway. There’s nothing to be done. If they want to even have a chance at finding the light, the slayer’s take will brook no disagreement.

Finally, the siblings come to an agreement. They take a shot together, embrace, and wordlessly the group splits, heading out on their separate missions.

No one dies that cycle, but the tension is palpable in both groups. Keyleth tries to keep the peace, doing her best to mediate between the moody vax’ildan and the new team members. Pike helps, but can’t help but worry about her other friends, especially when they return near the end of the year to find the other half still gone.

Vex without her brother is different too. She flirts, and fights, more with Zahra, one of the other members assigned to their group. She’s sarcastic without Vax to temper her, indiscriminately snarky to each member of the group. Even Percy seems different, laughing maniacally as he fights, and the whole group throws themselves into danger just a little more than usual.

They do meet back up, returning just a few days after the first group with the light in tow. However, having just a hint of what a cycle with just one twin looks like, no one is eager to do it again.

They are careful, but mistakes happen.

It’s Percy’s mistake that kills Vex.

Most of them have died at least once by now, Grog several times. Scanlan complains the most when he dies, but they can tell it leaves him shaken, no matter how much he tries to joke. Keyleth still cries when they fail to find the light and a world is destroyed, no matter how many times it happens. The twins died together, once, trying to hold the hunger off of their damaged ship while Percy desperately worked to repair it in time to leave. They know what death feels like now, but never alone. They don’t know what it feels like to survive.

It’s quick, and far too early.

They’re searching a sunken tomb for the light, having heard of great magical energy emanating from this place. There are monsters guarding it, sure, but it’s after the fight when Vex and Percy approach the sarcophagus. Percy lifts the lid, and reaches out to touch the artifact inside.

The next thing anyone knows, Percy’s tumbled out of the way of a blast of dark, necrotic, energy, and Vex’ahlia is lying on the ground. Cold. Unmoving.

Vax didn’t even see it happen.

They pull him away, back to the ship.

When Percy tries to talk to him, to give some form of apology, the gunslinger is left with a bloody nose and no less guilt than before. Percy retreats to his workshop in the belly of the ship, barely coming out. Keyleth starts leaving food outside his door. Half the time it comes back uneaten.

Vax is worse.

He doesn’t speak to Percy. He barely speaks to anyone else either. Keyleth is the only one who can force him to eat, or sleep, or talk at all. He leaves the ship without notice, for days at a time, and seems almost disappointed when he comes back alive.

They start asking Pike to follow him, just in case. She nods solemnly, and makes sure he sees her gathering up her mace and holy symbol every time he starts to storm away from the ship. Scanlan sits outside his door, or across the room from him, playing music. It’s almost an unspoken rule: Vax is never to be left alone, until his sister comes back. He doesn’t need to speak. They will be there for him anyway.

When the cycle finally ends, and Vex reappears in a blaze of light, hand in hand with her twin, he embraces her.

“NEVER do that again. You hear me? Never do that again. Never do that again.”

“Brother, I can’t breathe. I’m going to die again!”

There’s a laugh in her voice, through tears, and Vax only holds her tighter.

“Never leave me again.”

Percy reappears on deck as well, looking rested as he did when they left despite his months of little to no sleep. After the twins finally release each other, he presents Vex with the spoils of a year of unbridled guilt- custom engineered arrows, enough to last at least one cycle. It’s not enough to earn anything resembling forgiveness from Vax, or even from Percy himself, but Vex gives him a kiss on the cheek.

~~~

Cycles where Pike is dead are… sad. There’s no other word for it.

It’s not just the healing they miss. It’s her optimism, her faith, her comforting presence. Without her, people smile less. Even Grog, always deafeningly loud, seems too quiet.

Once such cycle, Vex finds her chronically faithless brother sitting in the tiny temple to Sarenrae Pike built on the ship, fiddling with something in his lap. He gives vex a melancholy smile when she comes over, and holds up one of his gloves, stitched with the beginnings of Sarenrae’s symbol in gold thread. She sits down next to him as he continues to work, leaning her head on his shoulder.

No one really remembers finding the light, or anything else of interest in these cycles. They search for it, at Keyleth’s insistence, but what use is the light of creation without the light of their party?

When she comes back, she doesn’t ask what happened. She simply goes to each party member in turn, just touching them. A hug, a touch on the shoulder, a kiss on the cheek. Even Scanlan doesn’t try to flirt. He does cry, and the others pretend they don’t see it.

~~~

Percy dies in a cycle, his gun misfiring just before a monster slams him, headfirst, into the stony cliff side. They cover the body as best they can, and go back to the ship, planning to regroup and keep looking for the light the next day. But instead of a feeling of safety, the first step onto the ship’s metal deck brings with it a rush of cold fear, sweeping through the whole party. Scanlan is the first to voice the nameless terror that grips them.

“Does… does anyone else know how to fly this thing?”

For once, they feel lucky it’s early in the cycle. Trying hard not to think of how Percy would smirk if he saw them struggling to decipher his complex engineering, they fling themselves into learning. They give up on finding the light entirely, and even Keyleth barely argues. Scanlan does his best to inspire them, to keep them working as hard as Percy always did. None of them quite have his intellect, his laser focus, his sleepless work ethic, but they emulate it as best as they can. Without the ability to fly this ship, the universe ends here.

Vex studies the arrows Percy made for her, and Vax investigates the workshop and helm with the care he normally reserves for traps and locks. Pike even begs her goddess for divine intervention, for some kind of help. Grog, with little else to do, holds tools for them and guards the ship from marauders. They work. They practice.

Finally, when the hunger comes, they take their positions. Grog attaches his chain of returning to his hammer, ready to defend the ship from distant hunger. Pike drives back the hordes with her divine light. Keyleth urges the plants around them to help, to lift them into the sky. Scanlan inspires them, playing desperate, wordless, music and reciting every poem he can think of, even the personal ones. The twins desperately man the helm together, applying everything they’ve tried to learn to take the ship haltingly into the sky.

Percy reappears in threads of light, standing at the helm just as the twins disappear from it. As he looks around in confusion, the others swarm him relieved to have him back and still shaking with the terror of the last few hours. Without even being told, Percy goes immediately serious.

“This cannot happen again. Everyone will learn to fly and repair the ship. I was arrogant, thinking this wouldn’t happen.”

The next cycle, they all witness his fabled focus and work ethic first hand. Percy is a hard taskmaster, but no one complains. Even Grog learns how to get the ship off the ground. They are determined- this will not end. They will survive, and fight another day.


End file.
